Della Granade

Della Lucille Williams Granade, age 96, died June 8, 2022, at her home in Chatom, Alabama. She was born May 12, 1926, in Bartow, Polk County, Florida to Thomas Edward Williams, Sr. and Della Kee Whitten Williams. The third of four children, she had an older brother, Thomas E. Williams, Jr. ("Pete"), an older sister, Frances Elizabeth Williams Tyndall ("Sister"), and a younger sister, Martha Ruth Williams Wood, who all predeceased her.
After graduating with a degree in sociology from Judson College in Marion, Alabama, she worked as a social worker with the state of Florida and later continued that career in Washington County, Alabama. She married Joe Granade in 1949. He died in 2007.
She, her husband and two young sons moved to Chatom from her native Central Florida in 1956. She found the move to her husband's hometown unexpectedly challenging.
Amused at herself and her own ignorance of local ways, she would tell about the first time she shopped at the local market and asked the owner if he sold sour cream, he replied, "Ma'am, I try not to." Never having milked a cow in her life, she politely returned a cow her father-in-law had delivered to her home for fresh milk. Her home telephone was on a party line with both the local bank and her in-laws. She grew to love both the place and the people of Chatom and Washington County, claimed them as her own, and devoted herself to the community.
Lucille contributed time and effort to improve the public schools. She was a substitute teacher, active PTA member, and even voluntarily taught painting and drawing in a vacant classroom. She organized and led a cub scout troop. She started and led a youth group at her church. She organized and taught the first special education class in Washington County. Using every resource she could find in those early days; she developed a plan of instruction to meet each child's special needs. Sixty years later, she could affectionately still recall each of her students by name.
Lucille volunteered at the local hospital and was an early advocate for literacy and public library access. She was a board member of the Washington County Public Library and supported the library's many outreach initiatives.
She is survived by two sons: William Alan Granade and Fred King Granade (Callie Virginia Smith), three grandsons: Taylor Rives Granade (Sonny Ruscha), Milton Smith Granade, and Joseph Kee Granade (Katherine Zoghby), and four great granddaughters: Alice Virginia Granade, Reese Lucille Granade, Paloma Gold Granade and Viva Miro Granade.
She is also survived by her brother-in-law, Dr. Milton T. Wood, her nephew, Stanley G. Moore and other nieces and nephews in the Granade and Williams families.
Lucille will be remembered as a gracious, kind and optimistic woman who never lost the ability to laugh at herself.
A memorial service will be held at a later date. Gifts in her memory my be made to the Washington County Public Library, P.O. Box 1057, Chatom, AL 36518 or to the charity of your choosing.